Creating Land Forms with Playdoh

Math Games

EXPLORING FICTION AND NON-FICTION

What’s the difference?

 

Insect Projects

Students invented insects with the main features of a real insect.  Lots of

creativeness going on in Grade 2.

Another Mystery Reader and we are inventing our own insects.

“I Love to Read & Write” Week has officially begun. 

WOW, 4 Mystery Reader’s today!  We are so lucky.  Even the Director of TASOK carved out some time for us today.  Here are a few pictures of these special moments that the kids just love!  

HAT DAY – Mix It Up Picnic and Reading in the Room

 

WEDNESDAY – Mr. Mbuyi, Brooke Fox, and Mr. Collins 

TUESDAY – Nico Tillan

Today, Monday, February 18th, we enjoyed a fun “kick off” assembly in the CAC. I forgot my camera so I’m sorry to say there are no pictures.  We danced, and watched a skit put on by teachers for students (yours truly included).

We also enjoy two Mystery Readers today.  Mr. Chaney, our school counselor, and Mr. David Freitas (Marisa’s Dad).  The students enjoyed hearing a Cajun version of Little Red Riding Hood and learning about the US’s 16th President, President Lincoln. Below are some pictures from today.  I owe you many pictures and hope to get caught up soon.  Enjoy!

 

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2019

We are now up to 12 students who have returned to school.  We are looking forward to having everyone back within the next couple of weeks.

We have been working on our writing pieces by adding details to make our writing more interesting; and we are organizing our writing in order for it to make sense to our readers.  I will try to include a link to a graphic organizer that helps to organize our thinking.

hamburger-writing_WBRDM-s1vpla

We are also writing in our reading journals about the stories we’ve read. We are including details such as:

• Title & Author

• The main idea of the story

• Characters and Setting

• Four (4) Main Details of the story

I will include another link to a graphic organizer to help your child in writing about what they are reading.  As well, I will put the Writing About Reading Choices.  This is to support comprehension.  

Writing Web-21ykdmi

 

Reader Response Menu-1lim9wu

In Math, we are working on fact families, or in other words, related facts.  We are using dominoes and creating number problems that go along with the numbers shown.  Below is an example.  You can do this at home with dominoes or dice.  With dice, you would need to roll two dice, or you can roll one twice.  

 

TODAY’S ACTIVITY OF ORGANIZING A WELL KNOWN CHILDREN’S STORY:

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, by Laura Numeroff

NO SCHOOL TODAY-JANUARY 10

I just wanted to let you know that I have sent login information to you individually through Class Dojo (CD.)  Please see CD for this important information.  However, I did forget to include the Google Drive Account information and will be sending you another message shortly.  Sorry about that.

MATH: The IXL Account has not changed. I included the login for that even though I know that many of you have been using it already.  You now have access to Everyday Math Games online as well.

LANGUAGE ARTS: Please be sure to have your child do the exercises on IXL that I assigned on Class Dojo and in a former email I sent before the break.  These are areas each child needs to work on.  Also, have your child write in a journal and check their work for the following:

C: capital letters – “Did I put them where they belong?”

U: understand – “If I read this to someone else, will they understand it?”

P: punctuation – “Did I put punctuation where it belongs?”

S: spelling – “Did I spell all of my words correctly?”

They can also submit their writing to me on Google Drive in a Google Document if they would like to try it out.

READING: Reading for at least 20 minutes each day and talk about the reading. Favorite parts and why.  Who were the characters, where does the story take place, what is the problem and solution and how do you know?

While many of you are out of the country, it would be good to try and set up an “Academic Time” each for an hour or more.  Again, it does not need to be all at one sitting, it can be spread out throughout the day.  The important idea would be to find a routine that works for your child, and stick to the routine daily as much as possible.

I hope I am not over communicating with you. J  Today there was no school and we are waiting to hear about tomorrow.

Enjoy your weekend and I hope to see everyone soon,

Ms. Sherman

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Since we will have a low number of students in school this week, we will focus on reviewing some of the skills we learned before going on break. I will not be introducing any new words this week. When I do introduce new words and sounds, I will post them for you here and on the TASOK Grade 2 Blog.

Currently, please refer to the work listed below that I posted before break. Most of the work your child will do will be online, with the exception of reading and writing.

If your child would like to submit their written work online, he/she can create a Google Document and share it with me through this email: ssherman@tasok.net. When it is shared as a Google Doc, I will receive it in my Google account. This will also support their learning of the keyboard.

IXL: I have checked all IXL accounts, and know that some of the students have already been working on Math and Language Arts. Please have your child do some academic work each day.

FOR WRITING:  your child can write (by hand) about their vacation, using descriptive words, and speech marks. He/she should check their work for capitals, periods, commas, speech marks, and spelling errors. When finished, they can share their work with me on Google if the wish.

FOR READING: your child should write a brief summary about what they’ve read. Their summer should include: who the characters are, where the story takes place, the problem in the story and the solution (if there was one.) He/she should include what their favorite part was and why.

ENGINEERS AND ARCHITECTS

PYP UNIT- HOW WE ORGANIZE OURSELVES

As part of our PYP Unit on ‘How We Organize Ourselves” today we built towers.  This is also aligned with our science unit on solids and liquids.  First in teams, we organized ourselves by making a plan of what our tower would look like using certain materials.  Students were introduced to the materials before planning.  We also read about towers and students identified that a solid tower would have a wide base and a narrow top.  Then the work began. The towers are also on display in the library until the end of January.

THE PLANNING STAGE-TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4TH

CONSTRUCTION STAGE – THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6

NEW LITERACY ROUTINES

We are excited to introduce a Learning Menu for grade 2 students. This menu is called: The Daily 5 Checklist.  Students will have choice in their learning each day; however, there are expectations as to how many activities they choose a week, and what work needs to be completed.  This choice will offer your child a chance to make decisions, do some planning, have autonomy over their learning (to a certain degree,) and be principled   Please click on  the LITERACY link under Unit Resources for more information.  Below are a few pictures from this morning, 11/28/18 of our Knowledgeable Grade 2 Thinkers and Inquirers.

 

 

 

PYP PARENT WORKSHOP COMING NEXT WEEK

WHEN:   MONDAY, DECEMBER 3rd

TIME:     8:15- 9:45

WHERE: CAC

Dear Elementary School Parents,

TASOK is pleased to announce an exciting learning opportunity!  We will be hosting our first IB PYP (Primary Years Programme) Workshop for TASOK elementary parents offered by PYP Coordinator Leslee Rupp.

You are cordially invited to attend this parent workshop on Monday, December 3rd from 8:15 a.m. to approximately 9:45 a.m. in the TASOK CAC.

This workshop will focus on curricular changes in the elementary school, components of the PYP, and our candidacy as a PYP school.  If you are interested, please email Dustin Collins at dcollins@tasok.net with the number of chairs you are requesting.

For more information about the International Baccalaureate (IB) and the Primary Years Programme (PYP), please visit https://www.ibo.org/programmes/primary-years-programme/. We hope to see you next Monday!

Sincerely,

Dustin Collins
Elementary and Middle School Principal

      INTERNATIONAL DAY AT TASOK      

We are Thankful to be part of such a wonderfully diverse community of learners.

IT IS CONGO WEEK

FRIDAY

WALK TO THE GREAT KAPOK TREE ON CAMPUS

Learning about the importance of the environment through a story and nature walk in our mini forest.  The students really enjoyed the time. Some were a little scared and said they have never been in a wooded area or forest.  One said, “This is the best adventure I’ve ever been on!”  Thank you Ms. Kraft for organizing and leading us into the forest. 🙂

Writing About Congo Week-What was your favorite part?

 

ALL SCHOOL STUDENT LED ASSEMBLY

THURSDAY

CONGO COOKING

WEDNESDAY

African Mask Designs

We began planning our African Mask project to celebrate Congo Week.  The students have let their creative juices flow on this project.  The final products will be posted on Friday.  Below are photos from our planning process.  The students traced the shape of their mask onto white paper.  They looked over the materials they would have to work with and began drawing and labeling their mask designs.

THE PLAN

The Construction

TUESDAY – PUPPETEERS

MONDAY – RUMBA & TRIBAL DANCE

(Tribal dance session to be added soon.)

The Dot, by Peter Reynolds – This was from Dot Day in the Library

 “This Is How We Do It” 

Exploring the Globe and finding the seven countries where the children from the above book are from. Students needed to find the country and put the name of the child from the book on a post-it and stick it to the country.  Of course many of the post-its fell off by the next day, but there were a lot of great conversations going on during the exploration.

Investigating Matter and

The Properties of Solids

 

Exploring the World 

Fun Playing Silent W Jeopardy With Ms. Fi

DISCOVERY TIME WITH MATH

On Friday afternoon, we had some time to explore some math manipulatives and become creative risk-takers as students problem solved to make some interesting designs.

MIX IT UP PICNIC

This was the first of our monthly picnics.  Being the first, it was an introduction as to how and where we eat our lunch during this time.  We sat with our own class this time, but next time we may be splitting into cross grade level groups in order to meet new people and create a bigger sense of community.  Below are some scenes from our first picnic!

Reading Buddies with Grade 5 Students.

It was a very productive time.  Grade 5 students were awesome in reading to and reading with our Grade 2’s.  They even asked them some great questions about the story.  We are looking forward to the next Buddy time. 

 

 

 

 

This week we’ve been talking about being “bucket fillers”. This discussion began by reading the book, “Have You Filled a Bucket Today?” by Carol McCloud. 

 

After reading the book, students engaged in a sorting activity where they read printed examples of activities that would be an example of bucket filling, and examples of bucket dippers.  They became risk-taking thinkers who communicated their ideas both verbally and by placing their sorts on a classroom chart.  

 

 

It is D.E.A.R. time in our room. Time to Drop Everything And Read. We love our books and can find some interesting places to read them.

First day of school Assembly where Mr. Collins and Mr. Chaney welcomed the elementary to a brand new year.  

On the first day we explored math materials with some discovery learning in our table teams.  

Introducing our  2018-2019 Grade 2 Problem Solvers